Hey gang. My players have blown off a module (DCC #23, Sunken Ziggurat) 3 times, and now I need to figure out a plausible result.

As you know, the module says that there are "Spirits of Uru-Nuk" being created by a defiled altar, deep in the ziggurat. These are created 1 per round (the encounter area near the top of the ziggurat explains that they come this quickly and it will be hopeless to stand and try to take them all on). If I follow that text, approximately 864,000 spirits have flown out into the world during the 2 months the PCs have ignored this module.

I'm using the revised spirits from the Dungeon Denizens PDF. The Spirit of Madness is a CR 4, casting hypnotic patterns, confusion spells, and its touch can reduce wisdom to 0 (catatonic, nightmares). The Plague Spirit is a CR 5 and casts contagion. The Storm Spirit is CR 6, hurls 1 lightning bolt per day, and slams for shock damage. They all have DR 5/magic, and elemental traits.

What is the logical conclusion of ignoring the ziggurat's rise? Do I really keep this thing creating 1 spirit per round? Would someone intervene before the numbers got huge? Are towns & villages destroyed? On what scale? How bad do you imagine this could get?

One last twist. In my campaign, I have Tiamat as very much alive. The module portrays Tiamat as dead and the ziggurat may feature in Tiamat's rebirth. Since in my game Tiamat never died, I've toyed with putting Zargon in there instead. There is a 3.5 edition conversion of Zargon (he's more than halfway down the page, with the description of room #100), if that helps you to get a feel for him. It's a possibility, if you find that to be an interesting path to consider.

The spirits are intent on rising up out of the ziggurat to spread plague and horror across the land. If either of them is approached within 5 feet or molested in any way, they engage the party immediately. Each turn, another spirit (equal chance of plague, storm or madness) burbles up through the cracked mud and joins the fray. Make itclear to the party that more smoke is streaming up through the cracked mud-brick, bringing with it more foes.

So, that's once per turn.If the players don't fix it, some other bunch of adventurers are sure to come along and save the day. I'm sure the local area would be affected (see under plague wind in the "getting the characters involved" section).

Check the spirit descriptions for the sort of things that would happen: Storm spirits would move rapidly around the local area, attacking travellers and lone farmhouses as they travel away from the ziggurat.Plague spirits hang around battlefields, infecting the wounded. have them affect a Player character after a battle, that will get their attention. I would expect them to start affecting nearby towns as well, and massing near graveyards and plague pits, once an epidemic took hold.Madness spirits would attack people randomly. The players might come accross a farm where the farmer had gone insane and killed his family. Walking through a town, a merchant caravan is suddenly attacked by a group of beserk residents. The local leader starts hearing and seeing strange sights, and blames the players in his paranoid delusions, while his grandchild falls into a catatonic sleep from repeated contact with the spirits.

Just make up some other dragon. The name isn't important, as long as you are consistant.

I'm playing the 3.5 edition version. Unlike in earlier editions where a turn stood for something long (10 minutes, I think), in 3.5 it just means "the player's turn in initiative order." So it's once per round. However, let's assume it's a typo and the authors meant for it to really be once every 10 minutes. In that case, 2 things. First, then it obliterates the need for the warning text that comes with it ("watch out they keep coming up and the players will be overwhelmed!"), as the players will handily defeat 1 every 10 minutes. But also, even if that's true, it only drops us down from almost 100,000 created over the course of months to a "mere" 1000 created over the course of months. I guess that means no apocalypse, but it certainly still means massive localized damage. I'd still think that's enough to wipe out small towns.

It would be nice to hear what the author's intent was, however.

In my case, the game has already played, and I've already ruined that area of the world. Everything was lightning bolted to death, madness everywhere, and now what's left is a devastated wetlands populated by lightning-resistant creatures. Lots of corpses and stink everywhere, too.

I made this post awhile back to be funny, but now I find myself running this adventure and having the same question as aboyd. I would also like to know the authors intent. In Area 1-2 under Developments it mentions another spirit breaking free every turn. Aboyd brings up a good point about all of these spirits being set loose on the locals. 1 spirit every 10 minutes = 144 a day/1008 a week. My players are on day three already and only on level 3. I think I'm going to say that they just scatter after getting free from the ziggurat and do only some damage to local tribes. So the world doesn't end after all.

_________________"When creating your character,choose an ethical system that can justify nearly any fit of temper, greed, cowardice, or vindictiveness, for example, Chaotic Violent..."

Finally made it to the end of this adventure. Work and the holidays got in the way. In area 5-7 under developments it says that the spirits will dissipate after the last altar is sanctified completing the ritual. I take this to mean that all the spirits created by the ziggurat are destroyed. The world does not end.

_________________"When creating your character,choose an ethical system that can justify nearly any fit of temper, greed, cowardice, or vindictiveness, for example, Chaotic Violent..."

Finally made it to the end of this adventure. Work and the holidays got in the way. In area 5-7 under developments it says that the spirits will dissipate after the last altar is sanctified completing the ritual. I take this to mean that all the spirits created by the ziggurat are destroyed. The world does not end.

_________________"When creating your character,choose an ethical system that can justify nearly any fit of temper, greed, cowardice, or vindictiveness, for example, Chaotic Violent..."

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 2 guests

You cannot post new topics in this forumYou cannot reply to topics in this forumYou cannot edit your posts in this forumYou cannot delete your posts in this forumYou cannot post attachments in this forum